Bánh Bò Nướng (Honeycomb Cake)
Updated July 11, 2024
- Total Time
- About 2 hours, plus cooling
- Prep Time
- 5 minutes
- Cook Time
- 2 hours, plus cooling
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
Yield:One Bundt cake; about 12 servings
- 2cups/254 grams tapioca starch (see Tips)
- ¼cup/38 grams rice flour (see Tips)
- 1½ teaspoons double-acting baking powder
- 6large eggs
- 1⅓cups/283 grams granulated sugar
- 1(14-ounce) can/390 grams full-fat coconut milk, well-shaken
- 2tablespoons canola oil
- 1teaspoon kosher salt (such as Diamond Crystal) or ½ teaspoon fine salt
- ½teaspoon pandan paste (see Tips)
- ¾tablespoon cold unsalted butter
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (12 servings)
299 calories; 13 grams fat; 8 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 3 grams monounsaturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 45 grams carbohydrates; 0 grams dietary fiber; 24 grams sugars; 4 grams protein; 242 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
Powered byPreparation
- Step 1
Arrange a rack in the center of the oven and put a 9½-inch nonstick Bundt pan on it. Heat the oven to 325 degrees.
- Step 2
Set a sieve over a large bowl and add the tapioca starch, rice flour and baking powder to it. Whisk the dry ingredients until they’re all sifted through.
- Step 3
Set the same sieve over another large bowl. Crack the eggs into it and break the yolks with a whisk, then slowly whisk the eggs clockwise until they all run through the sieve. Add the sugar, coconut milk, oil, salt and pandan paste to the sieved eggs and stir slowly with the whisk until smooth. Whisk gently throughout so as to not create too many air bubbles, which can cause the cake to sink.
- Step 4
Set the sieve over the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients, whisking them through the sieve as needed to help the mixture pass through. Using the whisk, gently stir together the dry and wet ingredients until combined. Pour the batter through the sieve into the other bowl, whisking if needed to help it go through. Repeat the sieving two more times, going from one bowl to the other.
- Step 5
Pull the rack with the hot Bundt pan out of the oven and drop the butter into the pan. Use a pastry or silicone brush to spread the butter over the inside of the pan, then immediately pour in the batter. Lay a sheet of foil on top of the pan without crimping the edges.
- Step 6
Bake for 45 minutes, then remove the foil and bake for 45 minutes longer, or until the top is browned and a cake tester comes out clean. Cool in the pan on a rack for 10 minutes, then use a rubber spatula to nudge the edges away from the pan. Carefully flip the cake onto a rack.
- Step 7
Cool completely, then slice into ½-inch-thick wedges to serve. The cake tastes best when served the same day, but keeps for up to 2 days in an airtight container at room temperature.
Tips
- Tapioca starch is commonly used in Asian desserts. The Erawan brand works especially well here. Other brands available outside Asian groceries will not result in a successful cake.
- Rice flour comes in many different grinds and varieties. For this cake, you want very finely ground white rice flour, ideally the Erawan brand in the packaging with the red print. You should not use brands of rice flour available outside Asian groceries or glutinous rice flour, sticky rice flour or mochiko.
- Pandan paste is extracted from pandan leaves, which have a floral flavor similar to vanilla with a heady aroma like jasmine. The paste is a concentrated version of the flavoring, which also provides an intense green color to this cake.
Private Notes
Leave a Private Note on this recipe and see it here.
Cooking Notes
Danielle
As a Vietnamese person I want to reassure everyone in the comments that pandan paste is welcome but certainly not mandatory. If you image search bánh bò you'll see that if we don't have pandan paste/extract we'll just use food coloring. We eat bánh bò primarily for the springy, chewy, fun texture; it's not as good on the 2nd or 3rd day, and it changes for the worse when refrigerated, so I'd worry more about finding enough people to eat this cake on the day it's made than finding pandan paste :)
keith
Pandab paste is really hard to find, even in NYC, but you can try an Asian grocery store. The popular brand seems to be Koepoe Koepoe. I tried this cake and I used 1 teaspoon of vanilla and 1/2 TBLSP of matcha tea powder (to give a warm vanilla floral essence) and it came out pretty good
Danielle
As a Viet person I just want to reassure others in the comments that for bánh bò the pandan flavoring is welcome but not essential. If you image search bánh bò you'll see that if we don't have pandan paste/extract on hand we simply substitute food coloring. We eat bánh bò primarily for the springy, chewy texture; left 2-3 days it becomes less pleasant, and refrigerating it changes the texture for the worse as well. I'd worry more about finishing it the day it's made than finding pandan paste :)
Anne Elk (Miss)
1/2 tsp of pandan paste? SUCH a tiny amount! Where to buy it, and is this one of those ingredients that is expensive, difficult to find and available in quantities that will go to waste after baking this cake that one time? Maybe Kalustyan's has it...
CL
I found a video of her making the cake, and she uses the brand Butterfly, available on Amazon. Sadly, the list of ingredients include no pandan. Instead, it includes artificial flavors and food dye. Same for brands like McCormick and Koepoe Koepoe. I found one pure extract - Bionutricia. Reviewers on Amazon are mixed about the flavor, with many saying it's too light to notice. Perhaps what we think is pandan flavor is artificial since the more common brands are probably used in these desserts.
Elizabeth
Just made this. Color is not at all the same. More like a pale matcha color. It was a bear getting it out of my buttered bundt pan. I've never worked so hard to get something out in one piece. It tastes good. It's weird in a good way. I would try it one more time. More pandan -- which I got at the Asian grocery store. If they have pandan in Boise, you can probably get it anywhere.
Mike
Followed the recipe. My wife is Vietnamese and I know this is supposed to be a hard cake to make. It came out great and all my in laws were shocked at me for trying and succeeding. Thanks!
Miami Baker
When I saw that commercial pandan paste was essentially sweet food coloring, I decided to make my own. I got 100% pandan powder online and used organic vanilla paste and organic agave syrup and mixed to a paste like consistency. The color was a darker green but the taste was great. I would agree with another users suggestion to use matcha powder and vanilla. It’s a close enough replacement
Martha Hunter
I found the ingredients at an Asian market but the Pandan I found was liquid in a little vial. I added scrapings of one vanilla bean. I goofed somewhere. The cake ballooned out of the Bundt pan while baking then quickly deflated once cooling, to halfway down the pan. My result had little taste and texture was kind of like a soft gummy bear. Well I tried!
Elaine Camp
Maybe I did something wrong in this incredibly complicated recipe. I ordered all the recommended Asian ingredients and followed all the steps, including the endless sieving, but the results were underwhelming. The cake is beautiful, but had very little taste. It wasn’t at all sweet, but very chewy, an interesting texture. I certainly won’t go to all this trouble again.
Lee
The cake collapsed within 2 minutes of removal from the oven. I tried it twice with the same results. I wonder if the proportion of rice flour to tapioca starch is incorrect.
Djina
I had so much fun making this cake because a) I LOVE Pandan anything, and b) it was completely outside my wheelhouse and I learned so much. I made the pandan paste over 4 days just like in the YouTube video (bought the frozen pandan leaves from Weee, which is also where I found the Tapioca flour and rice flour…as recommended by the recipe author). I love all the staining back and forth. I really tried not to whisk it to vigorously but if you could see the enormous soufflé that emerged from my
Arizona cook
Naturally gluten free.
Jen
I would love to try making this but am curious about the texture. Is it like mochi or butter mochi? I'm the only one in my family who loves all things mochi and that texture so I'm not sure if they would like this.
Julie
I LOVE the flavor of pandan, but have yet to find a paste or extract that has natural pandan rather than artificial. (The color of the author’s cake is most certainly from dye in the paste that contains artificial pandan.) Has anyone found a natural paste?? Following!! (Note: I’ve tried creating my own from frozen pandan leaves and it’s not easy.)
Mike
Followed the recipe. My wife is Vietnamese and I know this is supposed to be a hard cake to make. It came out great and all my in laws were shocked at me for trying and succeeding. Thanks!
Howard
I've searched the web for Pandan Paste. I have found several sites for Pandan Powder or Pandan Extract, but none for paste. The idea of an exotic flavoring is appealing. Please provide information on whether the powder or the extract can be used as a substitute. Also, does the flavor resemble? I love the description of the texture and am looking forward to proceeding with this recipe.
CL
Look for her video online. She uses the Butterfly brand extract - which sadly is artificially flavored and colored.
Silvia
I ordered my pandan extract on eBay directly from Thailand. It had no sugar added and gave a unique flavour that can only be described as delicious tropical nutty heavy vanillery. It was not artificial extract and had almost no color so I added green food coloring. Just to make the cake look like the picture! Was not expensive extract but was the bomb!
Lisa in Los Angeles
First of all, the instructions on this were top-notch. I was able to find all the ingredients via Amazon, and I had so much fun making this! I'm not sure if I pulled it out of the oven too soon - it doubled in size in the oven and then collapsed during the 10 minute cooling period in the pan - but I got a delicious, crunchy crust and a mochi-like cake interior that tasted sweet - but not overly so - and very eggy.
JJ
Mine is in the oven now with 10 minutes left to cook. It has, as you described, doubled in size mostly around the edge…hoping the cooling off time settles in down to something presentable
Martha Hunter
I found the ingredients at an Asian market but the Pandan I found was liquid in a little vial. I added scrapings of one vanilla bean. I goofed somewhere. The cake ballooned out of the Bundt pan while baking then quickly deflated once cooling, to halfway down the pan. My result had little taste and texture was kind of like a soft gummy bear. Well I tried!
Elizabeth
Just made this. Color is not at all the same. More like a pale matcha color. It was a bear getting it out of my buttered bundt pan. I've never worked so hard to get something out in one piece. It tastes good. It's weird in a good way. I would try it one more time. More pandan -- which I got at the Asian grocery store. If they have pandan in Boise, you can probably get it anywhere.
MC Salander
I made this today. I followed the instructions explicitly, including using Pandan paste that I purchased it in an Asian market. The result was that the bottom rim of the cake is beautifully browned. The top of the cake, the bottom of the pan, is bright green. I am waiting for it to cool so that I can slice it and see what the inside is like.
Kathy
This did not work at all. The cake fell and the interior, while tasty, was dense and gelatinous. I followed the recipe exactly, taking care not to have too many bubbles and used the pandan paste from Amazon. Bummed.
Miami Baker
When I saw that commercial pandan paste was essentially sweet food coloring, I decided to make my own. I got 100% pandan powder online and used organic vanilla paste and organic agave syrup and mixed to a paste like consistency. The color was a darker green but the taste was great. I would agree with another users suggestion to use matcha powder and vanilla. It’s a close enough replacement
David
I made this. Delightful green batter but cake was brownish inside when done. Am curious why. Found it had a strange texture and flavor. Not bad but quite unusual.
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